Author Archives: Barbara Fought

Aug 29

Quick Source for Data on Metro Areas

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Barbara Fought

Checking out a new city for a job?  Or need some quick stats for a story where you are working?  The Data Dashboard, part of the Urban Institute‘s Metro Trends is a helpful resource. You will find 366 metro areas … Read More →

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Aug 21

Resources Related to March on Washington

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Barbara Fought

The 50th anniversary of the March on Washington is Aug. 28 with many events planned leading up to it, including a March this Saturday.  If you want to pitch a story related to the marches or if your newsroom is … Read More →

Posted in Finding Sources, Finding Stories | Leave a comment
Aug 14

15 Minutes To Being a Much Better Searcher

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Barbara Fought

It’s the time when professors are readying their syllabi and class preps. I always do a session on how to be a good researcher early in every journalism class. So as I was working on that today I found a … Read More →

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Aug 09

Google Adds In-Depth Section

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Barbara Fought

If you’re like most people,  you don’t scroll down the page of results from a search engine. Research shows most people look at the top 3 or 5. That means you might be missing a great new feature from Google … Read More →

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Aug 05

#5 of 5 Tips on Better Searching: Related Searches

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Barbara Fought

Today’s great Google tip is how to find more sites like one you know of.  Especially if you are researching something that is not very common, you might need more information than the one specialized website you have just found. … Read More →

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Jul 31

#4 of 5 Tips for Better Online Searching: intitle, inurl

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Barbara Fought

Today’s helpful tip is on how to filter searches in another way — by a  certain website title or address. If you put intitle: or allintitle” before terms then Google will look for those terms you list in the web address (properly known … Read More →

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Jul 29

#3 of 5 Tricks for Better Online Searching: Filtering

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Barbara Fought

Filtered search — that’s another of my favorite tricks to help you be a better searcher when using Google or another search engine. If you know that you want to search just one website, or you know the address of … Read More →

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Jul 25

#2 of 5 Tricks for Better Online Searching: Complex Search Queries

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Barbara Fought

So if you’re one of those who uses Google exclusively or as one of your top preference, here’s some help on using it to be a quicker, better and smarter searcher. Today’s tip: write complex search statements.  Avoid just one or … Read More →

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Jul 22

#1 of 5 Tricks for Better Searching Online: Use >1 Engine

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Barbara Fought

The song Stuck_Like_Glue by Sugarland keeps running around in my head when I think about how people use search engines. Everyone is stuck on Google. That’s not bad, but Google should not be your only search engine, even if it is your … Read More →

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Jul 19

How do you know what’s on ban.jo is true?

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Barbara Fought

One of the new social media apps that has great promise for reporting  is ban.jo, as outlined in the last post (below). But when touting her new product before an audience of investigative reporters at IRE last month, Jennifer Peck … Read More →

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